The second game of the men's T20I tri-series in Nepal, also featuring the Netherlands and Namibia, was a close run thing with the Netherlands edging out the hosts by just two runs at the Tribhuvan University ground in Kirtipur.

Put into bat after Rohit Paudel won the toss, the Netherlands lost Max O'Dowd early in their innings, with fellow opener Michael Levitt providing the early impetus with 54 from 36 balls as he shared in a second wicket partnership of 62 with Sybrand Engelbrecht.

Engelbrecht stayed in for the rest of the innings, putting on 46 with Scott Edwards (33 from 16 balls) and 61 with Teja Nidamanuru (31 from 24), the latter being run out from the last ball of the innings. Engelbrecht finished unbeaten on 49 from 38 balls in the Dutch total of 184-4.

Vivian Kingma had Kushal Bhurtel caught behind for a duck in the first over of the Nepali reply, before Aasif Sheikh and Rohit Paudel added 65, the former the second man out having scored 34.

Paudel reached 50 from 36 balls before he was out, the first of two wickets for Sybrand Engelbrecht, with Dipendra Singh Airee playing something of an anchor role for the rest of the innings. With three overs to go, Airee was on 28 with Nepal needing 48 from the last three overs. Eighteen came from the 18th over with Airee taking his score to 44, as the home side began to sniff a chance of victory.

Airee started the penultimate over with a six, with Karan KC also joining in the fun with a six of his own two balls later as 15 runs were scored from the over, leaving Nepal needing 15 from the last over. A four and a six from Airee started the final over, before Karan KC was run out as they tried to run a second run from the third ball.

Roelof van der Merwe then bowled Airee from the fourth ball of the over with Airee having scored 63 from 35 balls. Number ten Pratis GC was unable to score the four more needed from the last two with the visitors winning by 2 runs.